Comply or Complain

I travelled down to Florida yesterday morning.  There are certain regulations at the airport that you must comply with.  My husband always complains about them.  If they tell you to take off your belt, take off your belt.  If they tell you to take off your shoes, take off your shoes.  If they ask you to put your loose change into a container, just do it.  As he did each step, he complained.  He joined the line and went through the Xray machine.  At the other end, he had to put his belt back on and  he complained.  When he had to put his shoes back on, he complained more.  By the time he put his change back into his pocket,  he was in a complaining frenzy.  As we walked towards the gate, I asked him if he had his ticket.  It was nowhere to be found.  We had to run back to security because he left it on the table as he was removing his belt.  The ticket was returned to him and he knew I was annoyed.  If he complied instead of complained he would never have lost his ticket.

Viscation

I know I spelled it VIScation. That is because although it is a vacation, it is the kind that you spend visiting people. It is a different type of time off. You sleep on uncomfortable beds and spend most of the trip talking. You do get to swim if the weather permits. Dinner is usually at a restaurant. Even though it is not restful, it is peaceful. I am speaking about peace of mind. Being with the family that you love dearly and knowing that they are doing well.

No Conscience

Yesterday I went to a book labeling party. One of my friends has a charity where she collects books and gives them to underprivileged children. A group of her friends got together at her house to put "This Book Belongs To" labels on the inside of each book. The labels are important as it gives a child a sense of owning something special. We sat around the dining room table sorting books, chatting and having snacks. It was such a nice afternoon. As my sister and I left, we saw that one of the women's cars had been hit. Not only hit but a bit demolished. Someone, I believe to be driving either a bus or a truck, sideswiped her car, dented her front panel and ripped the bumper totally off the car. I have never seen anything like that. A bumper tossed three feet away from the car. There was no note left. It was a hit and run. Even though it was not my car, my heart sank. You go to do something good and someone destroys your property. I do not know how people sleep at night.  

New Skills

Yesterday I was required to learn a new skill. I had to send a video to someone using  Dropbox. I had seen this option come up on the screen but never knew what it was. I had to first sign up, then download. I did that. Next I had to export the video into the program and create a link. I had no idea how to do that but I sat for hours until I learned. Once I was able to create the link I was able to attach it to the email and send. I was quite frustrated but I had no option. If worse came to worst I would have asked on of the doctors, but I do not like to be defeated until I have exhausted all roads.

My Childhood

My husband is slowly buying my childhood. Everything I owned in the 1960's is slowly being brought back into my house. I guess he never had his own toys when he was a kid so now at 63 he is recreating childhood.

New Forecasts

I am tired of the weather people being wrong. I stand by my "window forecast". Look outside and evaluate for yourself. For the past storm the predictions went from 3" to 5-8", to 12" and so on. For my area they stopped estimating at maybe 12". We got close to 2 feet. Why bother estimating when you are never right. From now on the forecast for winter storms should read as follows:
1) Get out your boots
2) Get out your high boots
3) Take Aleve now
 For summer it should be:
1) Take a bottle of water
2) Wear a sleeveless shirt
3) Put on extra deodorant
With these forecasts, we know where we stand. 

Good Neighbor

Yesterday my husband went out to shovel the 4 foot snow drifts. He has a snow blower but most regular blowers do not do more than 2 feet. You have to do the first 2 feet by hand. He sat on the front porch looking overwhelmed and then started to shovel. About five minutes later a man approached him and asked if he remembered him. My husband looked at the overweight, gray haired man and said he did not. The man then said that he was the next door neighbor's son. He was probably about 50 years old but looked older. We have not seen him for thirty years. He was always the nicest boy. He just must have visited his family when we were inside our house. He had one of his workers with him and they had a commercial snowblower. He told my husband that his worker was going to plow us out after he did his father's house. Within five minutes both houses were clear of snow. My husband gave the worker a $20 tip. It was as if a guardian angel swooped down to help. A good neighbor will always be a good neighbor, even thirty years later.

Dumb A** People

What don't you understand about taking your cars off the street prior to a blizzard? Common sense tells you to do it. The 1500 calls from the town tell you to do it. My 2 year old grandson knows to do it. If you have too many cars then put them on your lawn. That's what we do. This morning I woke up to a grinding sound. One dumb a** family down the block, who lives on the curve (the worst of all spots when a snowplow comes) left 4 cars in the street. I believe one of the morons in the family is a doctor. I should find out his name so I never go to him. A snowplow came down the block from the north and a snow sander came up the block from the south. You guessed it...they met at the curve. The plow took 45 minutes to back up. The sander got lodged in a snow bank and is still here 2 hours later. Just this minute a Bobcat tractor came to plow out the snowbank. All of this effort and time and money because some idiot didn't use his brain.

Blizzzzzard

Today we are having a blizzard. As long as my family does not have to go to work, I am fine with it. I can stay indoors and catch up on things without worrying. The snow plow, which usually takes a day to arrive, has already plowed once. Shelby was walked, even though he was frightened. I am in my sweatsuit and will do art projects all day. I might go out to dinner later because my family never misses a Saturday night out. We just have to make sure the restaurant is open.

Very Early Bird

I am an early bird. It is only 8:30 am but I have already been out food shopping and got gas for the car. Since there will be a snowstorm tomorrow, I just wanted to make sure that all of my errands would be done so I would have nothing on my mind. I work better this way. If I do a task ahead of time, the rest of the day flows.

To Snow Or Not

We are on a snow watch. Everyone I know is discussing whether or not we will have a storm on Saturday. The debates are going into how many inches and where it will fall. Television shows are comparing the American Doppler model to the European Doppler model. They each show a different picture. This basically means that they are guessing. If two machines show different outcomes for the same event, neither can be trusted. I like to use the window method. I get up on the day of the storm and look out of my bedroom window. What I see is never wrong.

Labels

This morning I put on a new pair of pants. It took me five minutes "prep" time. I first had to de-label them. There was a label on the pants leg. There was one sewn onto the waistband. There was a manufacturer's label hanging along side of the store price tag label. Inside there were four annoying tags. One for size, one for materials, one for care and one for country of origin. I had to get my scissors and start cutting. Some were easy cuts and others I had to be careful not to nick the cloth as I cut closely to get out as much label as possible so it would not rub up against my skin. I then had to go into another room to toss the papers into a wastebasket. All that work at 6am.

The Guilt Card

It has happened again. Someone has tried to pull the guilt card on me. I used to feel bad, now I feel angry. I received a call in work yesterday from a man who said he was a veteran. He has free benefits from the government but did not like his doctor so he wanted to come to my office. I quoted the prices to him. He said they were too high. I then said that if he used one of our junior doctors I would lower the price by 70% to make it more affordable. I have the discretion to do that. He said that was also too high. Then he threw in the guilt card. He said, "Thanks for looking out for the veterans". What did he want from me? I offered a 70% discount. The government offered free services. I do not go into Rolls Royce and complain that they are not looking out for me. I do not go into Starbucks and expect a $1.00 coffee. I go where I can afford. Plain and simple.

Cho King

Yesterday I went to a new restaurant. It was called Noodles and Company. They had all types of noodle dishes, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Italian and American. I started to read the menu and then I decided to use the restroom. As I walked to the bathroom, I saw a free standing sign that advertised Cho King. It had a picture that I did not yet focus on.  I did not stop to read the ingredients. I would read them on my way back. After I used the bathroom, I went to read what the Cho King dish was. As I stopped to focus on the sign, I realized that it was not a dish that said Cho King. It was a sign that said Choking Hazard. The picture showed what to do to administer aid in case someone is choking.

Happy Birthday

Today is my younger son's birthday. He is 32 years old. The time has flown by. I can still remember vividly every moment of the day he was born. I remember that my husband was eating White Castle burgers at 1am and wanted me to wait until he was done and had his chocolate doughnut before I called the doctor. After he ate, he then wanted to shave, as he was beginning to grow a beard and didn't want to look bad at the hospital. I needed to remind him that it was not about him. It was about me and the baby. He did finish eating and he did shave before we went to the hospital. I was in too much pain from my contractions to argue. The baby was born 6 hours later. Good thing we were not at a buffet or my husband would not have left until he was full and the baby would have been born at the pasta station.

A Week

It is amazing how our bodies can heal in just one week. Eight days ago I was in New England, sitting in a hospital room. My son was one day out of major surgery, feeling bad. One week later he is up and about, healing well and shopping in a supermarket. Sometimes our attitudes have a great deal to do with our healing. His surgeon gave him a timeline. Painkillers would be used for three days. Appetite would be less for a week. Walking would be done from day 2 on. The doctor knew exactly how my son's body would react to this surgery and how long it would take to get back to normal. He was right on target.

Into The Woods

I work in a building that has multilevel parking. The second level sits in front of a wooded area. Yesterday a car drove into the woods. No one could figure out how it got there. There were concrete blocks in front of each spot and cars parked in each space. The car landed up behind the blocks, in the woods, and smack up against a tree. As each patient walked in, I heard the same comment. "There is a car in the woods. How did it get there?" I went out to investigate. I saw the maintenance man and he told me how it happened. The people drove over the concrete block, thinking it was an exit. They drove through the wooded area until they saw the tree and crashed into it. They then got out and walked away. Later in the afternoon I got a call from one of my doctors who was with the police. It seems that I was the only one, other than the maintenance man,  that knew how the car got there. I explained what happened and they thanked me. I have no idea how they will pull it out.

Wearing Your Emotions

There is an expression that people "wear their emotions on their sleeve". It means that they cannot hide their feelings. The reality is that many people wear their emotions on their lips. I am talking about cold sores. Just this week I have seen three people in stressful situations. Within a day or so, the cold sore appears. When certain people feel extreme stress, for good reasons or bad, an unsightly sore will pop up. It hangs around for about a week. Nobody mentions it but somehow when you talk to the person it is hard to avoid staring at it. Now that I am thinking about it, I have never seen a man with a cold sore. I guess that is just another thing that separates the sexes.

Old and Cold

I used to joke that the older someone was, the colder they were. Old people wore sweaters in the summer. Young people wore shorts in the winter. I guess I am getting older. Lately I am always cold. I get dressed in the morning and then put on a matching sweater. Most people would think that I am doing this for style. I am really doing this for comfort. I am turning into an old, cold person.

Information Center

Sometimes I feel like an information center. Instead of thinking or researching things for themselves. people come to the "information center" for help. Yesterday at least three people called me for advice on things that were easy to find for themselves. One person called me for a telephone number that they could have found online. One person called me to ask how to fill out a form that was self explanatory. The best was the person that called to ask me who to speak to at a college regarding financial aid. I told them to call the financial aid office. I thought that question was a no brainer. Maybe if I charged for the information, people would stop asking and learn to be self reliant.

Back Home

I returned home late last night. It is always a good feeling to sleep in your own bed. This weekend turned out wonderful. When I went out of state, I did not know the outcome of our situation. Now that I am home, I know that it is good. As I pulled away from my son's home, I waved goodbye to him, his wife and my granddaughter. That is what I was praying for. To have their family back intact and feeling well. Last night I slept with a clear mind. I had not done that since November. It takes time to heal wounds but my son is a tough guy. His incentive is to get back into the gym and work out. Before he knows it he will be doing that.

With The Flow

Today will be a day that I will go with the flow. I have no idea when I will be going home. Usually I live my life on a schedule. I get up at a certain time. My meals are at the same time. My bedtime is routine. Today I will have to be relaxed and see where the day takes me. I do not know where I will sleep tonight. I could be in New England or in New York. Either way, it will be fine.

Robo Man

I am amazed by robotic surgery. Just the concept that a robot can enter the body through small incisions and perform surgery is mind boggling. Even though the pain is less, when a person is in pain, the comparison of more or less means nothing to them. Our body needs time to know that something has been done to it. The second day after surgery is the worst. It is bad for everyone. The patient feels the pain but the family feels the helplessness of the pain. This is day two for our family and all I can do is sit by and see someone I love feeling bad. Time passes and so will the pain. I just wish I could set the hands of the clock ahead.

Pray

The power of prayer is extraordinary. Sometimes praying is all we can do. When we have no control over an outcome, we hand it over to a higher authority. When we pray together, our voices are louder. I need prayers today. As many as I can get. I do not want to say why, as this blog is online and it would invade someone else's privacy. All I can say is pray with me this morning for "health".

Foot In The Door

Sometimes you just need to get your foot in the door. Once you are in, you take it from there. Years ago things were face to face. When you wanted a job, you walked in and asked for it. Now things are online. It is harder this way. How we look on paper is not how we are in person. My husband is looking for a part time job for a few hours a week. Most places make you go online first, then have a telephone interview and the last step is the in person meeting. He is being passed up for some jobs because he is answering honestly. Honestly is not always correct. It is black and white but sometimes grey shows things in a better light. Years ago I had a friend Debbie. When she interviewed she answered yes to everything. She was hired for every job she interviewed for. When she started the job and she had no idea what to do, she would say, "Oh....that is not how we did it in my previous job." They would show her their way to do it. She was a quick learner. In two years she went from entry level to management. If she had been honest she would still be entry level. I told my husband to answer all of the telephone questions "yes" and when you go to the in person meeting, be honest. Once his foot is in the door and they see that he is a good worker with a great background he will be hired.

Warranty

I never procrastinate. I like to get things done as soon as I can. A few weeks ago this philosophy really paid off. We have an air conditioning system in my office that was a few years old. All of a sudden it stopped working. I called the manufacturer and it was hard to get to the area that I needed. Even though I was busy, I kept trying. I did not want the problem to carry over until tomorrow. Some of my staff said to just hang up and try again in the morning. I said that was not how I work. I take care of business immediately. After a while I got through to the warranty department. They checked the records and said that the office was  4 years and 364 days into the five year warranty. What were the odds that the unit would break one day before the warranty was up? They opened a claim and replaced the unit for free. If I had waited one more day, it would have cost $600. 

Color My World

I came upon a new art project the other day. I did not realize how popular it was until I mentioned it to people. It is called "mandela" art work. Mandela art is intricate patterns that are like pages of a coloring book. They are swirling designs that intertwine within themselves. The concept is for adults to color these patterns with colored pencils or markers. Coloring these involved patterns is supposed to relax you and is good for your well being. I bought a book of these patters over the weekend and started coloring one last night. It was very relaxing. My pattern is looking nice enough to frame. If my husband was not walking in the room every two minutes chattering about nonsense it would have been an even better experience.

Out With The Old

Yesterday I did something cathartic. I tossed out every pair of underwear and socks that have been taking up space in my drawers. Most of us replace but never totally purge. Usually I buy new and then scrutinize the old. Are they really bad? Can I wear them a bit longer? Can they be demoted to sleep garments? This time there were no reprieves. They all went. No negotiations. I feel so cleansed. New year, new undies. I may make this a ritual.

A.E.I.O.U.

I am the type of person that does not like when people use language improperly. I hate when people mix up "them" and "those". I cringe when people say "aks" instead of "ask". Then there is the saying "not for nothing". What the heck does that mean? When people say, "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" I feel like explaining that if you "could care less" it means that you do care. I was driving in my neighborhood the other day and I saw a sign for an Orthopaedic specialist. I hate when the "a" is added. Even this blog site is underlining it as incorrect spelling. Does the extra "a" make it seem more professional? It is the same thing with the words "color vs colour" and "honor vs honour". Stick to the regular way of spelling them. More vowels do not add anything to the meaning.

Binge

There is a new term called "binge watching". It is when you watch many episodes of your favorite show, one after another. I am guilty of that. Sometimes I scroll through the channel guide and find a new favorite show. Then I binge watch it. My newest show is called Flea Market Flip. It is on the GAC channel. The show starts off in either of two huge flea markets, Stormville or Brimfield. Each team gets $500 to buy three items to restore. They work on them for one day and try to flip them at Hell's Kitchen Flea Market or Long Island City Flea Market. The team who makes the most money flipping their items wins $5000. It is amazing to see how these discarded, neglected items are brought back to life. Sometimes a team buys an item for $5 and sells it for $500. Last night I watched 6 shows in a row. I binged and I am proud of it.

1/364

Today is the first day of the new year. 01/01. People all over the world are turning to the first page of their calendars. No one has to think about what the date is. It is a no brainer. Each year I have a different type of calendar. It depends on who is giving them out for free. I mainly use the bank ones. Years ago I used the school district ones but since I no longer need to know when the next PTA meeting is, I toss that calendar in the garbage when I get it. Some years I use the Jewish calendar. Other years the calendar has no holidays on it. This year I am using what I call the "race to the end" calendar. It is the one that has a countdown. Today Is January 1, so the date says 1/364, day one of the year, three hundred and sixty four to go. Why would I care how many days are left? I have never been asked to tell someone how many days until the year ends. I guess it is more for trivia than useful knowledge.